


Drüskelle

by introspectivepoetic



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 09:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9431813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/introspectivepoetic/pseuds/introspectivepoetic
Summary: While being each others only company for weeks, Matthias has conflicting feelings towards what he feels for Nina. Is it her or is it him that's controlling his heart rate?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Um.. this is actually my first time writing for six of crows and my first time writing here on ao3. I really really hope you all enjoy and please leave down in the comments whether or not I portrayed their characters correctly. They're my favorite couple in the series :).

A witch is all that she is and all that she'll ever be.

A witch is all that she is and all that she'll ever be.

A witch is all that she is and all that she'll ever be.

A witch is all that she is and all that she'll ever be.

Matthias kept trying to tell himself this over and over again, but it just wasn't working. Much to his dismay, he kept repeating it in his head. He practically formed the words in his mouth silently. He didn't want to offend her.

But indeed, he did.

He should.

Because that's all her kind ever was and ever would be: witches. Savage and cruel witches with immortal abilities and corrupted souls.

"You Fjerdans." She smirked at him at night while they were huddled barely clothed in one of the whaling camps. They were laying side by side, looking each other in the eyes.

He hated how her large green eyes entranced him. How they radiated under the fire and in the dark like an unwavering little light bulb. Except, they were small bulbs glancing back at him.

He couldn't help but eye her down with curiosity, feeling like he gave her what she wanted just by doing so. All they wanted was attention, so they practically demanded it with their mythical, Grisha powers. All they wanted was a reaction, so they recruited reactors.

"What about us Fjerdans?" Matthias's eyebrows had furrowed, almost daring her to disrespect his people and his country.

She shifted, sighing. "You wouldn't know what love is if Cupid's arrow hit you in the heart."

"Yes, I do know what love is."

"And what might that be in your eyes? To your people? Kidnapping innocent people?"

"Your kind are-"

"Evil, demons, I get it. I've heard it all before from you alone. I just don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"How someone so... good could be so corrupted. Then again, maybe I'm just imagining the good part." Nina reached up to toy with a string of her hair, curling it up before letting it cascade back down. It made him be internally disgusted with himself for observing almost every detail of Nina like a microscope, zooming in on even the most insignificant things. Like the way she ate. Or, the way she laughed. Saints, her laugh always made him smile. It was something he hated and loved.

He pretty much hated and liked everything about her, about this, about their attachment to each other. He could've sworn they were growing attached to each other and that she felt the same way about him as he to her. They'd always flirt, usually her doing more of the flirting than he. Although Matthias got an ache in his chest and stomach from them, to Nina, it might've been a different story. It was practically second nature to her, other than making his heart beat in mysterious ways.

Matthias became furious at the insult. "I think that's you you're talking about."

"No," Nina disagreed, shaking her head. "I know exactly who I'm talking about. And it's not me."

Everything he liked about Nina was everything he should've hated about her. He should hate the way she ate. Hate the way she laughed. Hate her evil smile. Hate her relentless flirting. Hate her appearance. She was a Grisha for Saint's sake.

But he somehow found it in himself to still like those things. For every time he initially liked, his mind told him to hate, but something pulled him back to his first feeling.

It was so complicated and frustrating to keep up with this mentality and his conflicted feelings at the same time.

Without leaving room for him to speak, the witch continued on. "You show loyalty to your country and your people, which is a good thing. If only they stood for the right things and cherished good beliefs. Sometimes, I truly think you're brainwashed because every time I think we're close to getting somewhere, we end up at base one. You shut off, so I shut off. You insult my people so I insult yours. You turn your back on me and then I turn my back on you. And saints, I hate it so much. I hate this situation so much. One minute we're flirting and the next we're fighting. One minute we're enemies and the next we're-"

"We're not friends."

Nina, the witch, rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever you'd like to believe. Out of everything I've said, you chose to interrupt me on that?"

"Well when you decide to insult my country, of course I will."

"And that's exactly what I'm talking about." Silence impregnated the camp. "You're so brainwashed with what your country perceives about my kind that you can't even accept what we have and who I really am underneath all your stupid superstitions and myths. You turn me away every chance you get. Tell me this, drüskelle, how would you ever know something if you've never even came in contact with it?"

"You don't have to see one in the flesh in order to know something."

"Then what do you do?" Nina taunted, her hair brushing lightly on his shoulder. "You read textbooks on them. But let me tell you something, Matthias. That is only knowledge. False knowledge, at that. It's knowing something without really knowing it, without actually having experience with it. Wisdom, comes from experience. That isn't what textbooks and teachings and tellings could ever teach."

"Well," Matthias cleared his throat. "I've experienced you slowing and accelerating my heart rate for the past however so many weeks. Tell me how can one do so? With abilities like yours, it's somehow possible. You Grishas are inhuman and evil."

The witch's voice hardened. "So quick to judge and assume rather than learn and be reevaluated. We Grisha's are human just like everyone else, and I don't care if Fjerdan's leader to its mere peasant told you otherwise, I told you it myself. And have you ever considered this possible outcome, Matthias? That although I'm the cause of your heart rate, I might not be the one in control of it?"

Matthias shook his head, refusing to believe it.

He didn't want to believe what could've possibly been the truth. Why would he want to throw away years of training and practicing to go to war and ultimately execute her kind in exchange for accepting that he was falling in love with the enemy? That the enemy wasn't really the enemy? That the biggest monsters were themselves?

It was because he, along with all of his other fellow Fjerdan brothers, needed a scapegoat. Times like these - moments like this one - called for desperate measures. Matthias did not want to be a traitor of his own kind and give in to her ways. He did not want to like her. He refused the symptoms by blaming the victim. He did not want this at all.

At this point, Matthias didn't know what he wanted anymore. One minute he wanted home and the next minute all he wanted was to be serenaded by Nina's flirting. Sometimes in those cold and lonely tents when all they had were each other, his only comfort would be her relentless flirting, regardless of if it made his cheeks warm or not.

A witch is all she is and a witch is all she'll ever be.

A witch is all that she is and all that she'll ever be.

A witch is all that she is and all that she'll ever be.

A witch is all that she is and all that she'll ever be.

He tried to hang onto these words for the next few weeks, but he could only hang onto them for so long before they slowly slipped away.

But they quickly snapped back at him once she declared him a slaver and ultimately betrayed him.

It was almost like falling off a cliff and hanging on to the last piece of an object you can grasp before letting go.

Before falling face down.


End file.
